1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of electronic voting system methodology, as well as apparatus for use in elections. More particularly, the voting system is improved to permit access for the disabled, with new methods for voters to navigate an electronic ballot, and to enhance the integrity of electronic voting processes by implementing advanced security and vote confirmation features.
2. Statement of the Problem
Modern elections are often performed on a large scale where information is collected from individual voters in numerous precincts, from the precincts to an election administrator, e.g., at a countywide or statewide level, and from respective states to the federal level. Due to the need for centralized planning and counting of votes, old systems including the counting of votes by hand from a ballot box are being discarded in favor of electronic voting systems.
As a consequence of this shift in voting technology, there have arisen significant concerns regarding the ability of computer-knowledgeable people to corrupt the election process. For example, a computer programmer might create a program having a user interface that masquerades as permitting the voter to cast votes according to a normal interactive process while the information that is collected from the voter is actually discarded. The system is then able to insert votes to be counted according to the programmer's desires.
Voting is intended to be a private matter where a voter can cast a ballot without fear of reprisals. Thus, the systems typically keep, and are often required by governmental authority to keep, no audit trail that can be traced back to the individual choices that a voter makes at the polls. This standard of anonymity exacerbates the difficulty in auditing the voting process to assure its integrity.
Everyone who is entitled to vote should be able to vote, but there are also situations presented to disabled voters that interfere with or prevent their voting. It is a significant challenge to develop a voter interface that permits disabled persons to vote while respecting their right to privacy.
New technology permits several systems to offer touch screen technology where the voters actually touch, with their finger on the stylus, an active screen element. The device responsively senses and records the selection. This type of voter interface presents the voter's selections at different locations on the screen, i.e., the voter must “hunt down” the proper area on the screen to make a selection. This type of activity slows down the voting process and increases the chance of the voter becoming lost or frustrated, thereby disenfranchising the voter. Furthermore, by presenting the voter with an active and fragile element of the voting device, this dramatically increases the possibility of device failure caused by voter abuse in the privacy of the voting booth.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,753 to Graft discloses an electronic voting system having an optical memory disk that is used to store election results. The disk may be hand carried between a precinct and a headquarters unit to assure, among other things, that the headquarters receives unadulterated election results. U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,325 to Lohry et al discloses a similar memory cartridge that contains a flash memory, as opposed to an optical disk. Electronic security means include password protection of operator control features and checksum handshake to verify the transportable memory cartridge. None of these references teach higher levels of security that prevent tampering with the election software itself and they each contemplate push button or touch screen ballot navigation.